[danso]

I used to work at the Bee but it was long enough ago that I don't recognize the person quoted as the Bee's president/publisher, and long ago enough that I don't remember specific experiences using it (that is, I can't remember if I ever used it), nor do I know how it's used in the present-day. But I'm guessing the purpose is similar to how I've seen it used at other news orgs: as a lookup tool for contact info (e.g. calling for an interview). This is what the Bee says:

http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert...

> The Bee had obtained the voter registration database from the state for reporting purposes, and it’s not the first time this information has been exposed on the public internet. The state has provided the same database to other organizations, and some of them have also been subject to attack – including a 2017 incident in which a hacker made a similarly worded demand for a Bitcoin ransom.

Campaigns of course use it to know which people to call up during voter drives. In other states, the databases are downloadable from the Secretary of States' websites.